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Palestinian muslim worshipers take part in Friday prayers outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on 25 April 2014

Demotix/Submitted by Mahmoud illean

Israeli forces physically attacked eight Palestinian photojournalists on 25 April 2014 while they were covering Friday prayers in the streets of Jerusalem following the decision to shut down Al-Aqsa Mosque. The decision resulted in a security crisis and traffic jam in the city.

Security forces assaulted Aymen Abu Romouz, a cameraman for AlMayadeen TV channel, Mahmoud Alyan, photographer at Al-Kuds newspaper, and freelance photographer Saeed Al-Qaq during their coverage of prayers that took place outside as a result of the Al-Aqsa shutdown.

Mona Al-Kawasmi, a reporter for Al-Kuds, Wael Al-Salayma, an Al Jazeera cameraman, Mahfouz Abu Turk, a photographer and Diala Jwayhan, a Quds Net Agency reporter, were assaulted while covering the clashes that took place between Israeli forces and those attempting to pray at Bab Hutta and Bab al-Majlis in Jerusalem.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) believes that the Israeli occupation forces' attack on Palestinian journalists on the job is a perpetuation of their policy of muzzling mouths in order to create a stifling climate that hinders journalists from doing their jobs.

ANHRI calls on Israeli security forces to suspend such practices and to abide by the international laws that protect journalists and media professionals' rights.

ANHRI added that Israel should also discontinue the arbitrary security decisions that violate Palestinian people's rights, in particular, the closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Although invalidated through a unanimous repeal by the Egyptian Parliament in 1928, the Assembly Law continues to be unlawfully exploited in tandem with the notorious Protest Law, passed in November 2013.

During the year, the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta curtailed the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly through repressive laws such the Referendum Act, the Computer Crime Act, and article 116 of the penal code on sedition, as well as NCPO orders censoring media and preventing public gatherings of more than five people.

The murder of popular political commentator Kem Ley, who had voiced many criticisms of the government, on 10 July 2016, remains unanswered. Authorities systematically denied Cambodians their right to peaceful assembly by suppressing protests and issuing a series of ad hoc bans on non-violent gatherings and processions.

Restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly persist, amid the government's failure to contend with the range of rights-abusing laws that have been long used to criminalize free speech and prosecute dissidents.As part of the military's "clearance operations" in northern Rakhine State, where thousands of Rohingya Muslims face rampant and systemic human rights violations, the authorities denied independent journalists access to the region since early October.

Events at recent demonstrations and protests indicate that the fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly in the Kingdom of Cambodia are facing ever-greater interference and restriction at the hands of local and national authorities.

Violence against journalists in Europe increased in the second quarter of 2016, reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform show, as a government crackdown in Turkey intensified and protests turned violent in countries from France to Finland.

The government uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics at the national and state level.

In recent years, the space afforded to civil society to operate freely has been shrinking dramatically across the world, presenting a serious threat to democracy and human rights. Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have been especially badly affected by this shrinking political space.

The first months of 2014 saw a continuation of the political unrest that rocked the capital city of Phnom Penh in the months following the disputed July 2013 national elections. Political protests continued throughout the city in 2014 as the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) boycotted its National Assembly seats over alleged widespread irregularities in the previous year’s election, which maintained control of the legislative body under the Cambodian People’s Party, and its long-ruling leader Prime Minister Hun Sen, who in 2014 marked 30 years as head of state.

This 140-page report documents lax government enforcement of labor laws and brand actions that hinder monitoring and compliance. In recent years, wage protests, instances of garment workers fainting, and burdensome union registration procedures have spotlighted the plight of workers in Cambodia’s garment factories.

This report documents 45 cases from Caracas and three states, involving more than 150 victims, in which security forces have abused the rights of protesters and other people in the vicinity of demonstrations.

The 100-page report shows that Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal are now facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.

The Turkish authorities severely restricted the right to freedom of expression of journalists and writers during and after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, English PEN and PEN International said in their joint report.

This factsheet provides an overview of the recent rubbish collectors’ protests and subsequent negotiations with garbage collection company CINTRI. The strike for an increased minimum wage and improved working conditions went ahead in spite of the current ban on all demonstrations, assemblies and marches, and remained peaceful, despite heavy military police presence

This Briefing Note addresses the increasing practice of forcing human rights defenders, protesters and everyday citizens to sign written statements agreeing to not partake in future demonstrations or illegal activities, as a condition of their release or to avoid charges

Charges against dozens of protesters in connection with the protest on the eve of President Vladimir Putin’s 2012 inauguration are "inappropriate" and "disproportionate," according to a panel of independent experts. Twenty seven people are facing "mass rioting" charges in connection with the protest on May 6, 2012.

There is some skepticism about how much influence Burma's youth movement can assert in terms of political change. Still, activists have benefited from greater access to the Internet, which has brought a new side to the online community after decades of heavy censorship

The report documents case after case in which police, the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) opened fire into crowds or beat protesters in a brutal and unlawful manner

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